Holly Bristol

Philosophy 101

Mid Term

MWF 9-9:55

What is the Truth

        When a person goes to court and is asked to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, can we assume that the person giving the statement is telling us facts that are based on a past occurrence or are they actually giving us what they think is the way something happened during that past occurrence?  The main problem that we see here is that someone’s truth is someone else’s false.    If someone testifies that the sky is blue is it really blue or is blue the only part of the sky that they can see. This is where some problems start to arise.

        The notion that someone’s truth is someone else’s false can be a little hard to understand at first.  The best way that it can be explained is that in some cultures our truth is not going to be the same as theirs.  For example John Locke said “that whatsoever is, is” this would not be the same truth as Socrates “idea” of a chair (or Plato’s “eidos”-the ideal form of the chair).  By Locke’s statement we have to accept the chair as being there as truth.  By Socrates statement we have to accept that the chair really is not there but the Idea of the chair is.  Socrates statement leads to many other questions about truth, because many times, Socrates, himself, tended to doubt that he knew anything at all.  But, if you follow his idea to the end then you will find nothing but more questions.  For example his idea of a chair is a bunch of molecules bound together to form a shape that one can perceive as a chair.  You can take this even further by saying that the molecules are formed of atoms that are positive or negatively charged to form an “idea of a molecule”.  We are still trying to determine what the truth of the chair really is.

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        Locke’s stand is that we need to accept the form of the chair as it is and not question what the ideal form of the chair is or was or is going to be.  This is one of the many problems that can arise out of different times and/or schools of thought.  If you take Socrates side on this argument you will probably never find the truth in our court system.  However if you take Locke’s side of this argument then you still probably will not find the truth either, although it may be more likely.

To tell the truth ...

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